The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for producing a copper clad steel wire.
Certain methods are already known for producing a copper clad steel wire such as by billet casting, electro-plating, and tube sinking. Billet casting is a method of pouring molten copper around a steel rod to form an ingot and then hot rolling the formed ingot to produce a copper cladded steel rod. This method requires a large sized hot rolling mill and cannot continuously produce copper clad steel wire, which results in added expensive wire. Electro-plating is a method of plating a steel rod with copper. This method requires a plating liquid composed mainly of NaCN or CuCN which would cause pollution, and also hardly form a plated layer of a uniform thickness which results in a low quality copper clad steel wire. Tube sinking is a method of drawing a copper tube inserted therein with a steel rod. This method cannot continuously produce the copper clad steel wire and is low in productivity.